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AMK 1/48 MiG-31BM - finally finished after 5 year.


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 I have been a part of the AMK MiG-31BM project ever since something like 2013 helping out with the development and hunting for bugs in the CAD. Shoutout to AMK team for being so diligent and open to critique and thanks for supplying this (and other) kit(s) for me. This particular kit is the second one ever from the factory (first one is in my stash, and wont be built :)) and i started to build it around November 2015.

 

Won't bother writing much about the build itself, it is well known to be an excellent kit. The reason why it took so long had nothing to do with the kit itself, but my build mojo was not always there and i have been working on other models meanwhile too. The build is mostly OOB other than few smaller improvements here and there and Eduard resin wheels. Shoutout to Furball Aero Design, i used their mask and canopy frame decals on this build. I also used Master Model resin/metal pitot tube and thanks to them for saving me when i screwed up the resin part... Of note; Eduard wheels have excellent detail but beware - they do not fit the landing gear tabs OOB. So recommend to drill them out to fit before any painting etc. I was lucky enough to sit in this particular frame during 100 years of Russian Airforce celebration in 2012. Now, to the pictures;

 

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Model was displayed at a local show last weekend and won first place in its class. But the work is not 100% done yet, i plan to improve and add a few things on the model during this fall... So the topic tittle isnt completely correct. 🙂

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Thank you, glad you liked it. 🙂

 

For the cockpit color i used AKAN's 73006 cockpit color for MiG's in general and Mi's. However, i felt that the color out of the bottle was too green for my taste so i added a few drops of Vallejo's deep sky blue. For the airframe i used AKAN 73059 out of the bottle and AKAN 73010 for the radome and other dark grey areas. Really nice paints. For other areas i used other vallejo colors, tamiya etc.

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7 hours ago, Berkut said:

Thank you, glad you liked it. 🙂

 

For the cockpit color i used AKAN's 73006 cockpit color for MiG's in general and Mi's. However, i felt that the color out of the bottle was too green for my taste so i added a few drops of Vallejo's deep sky blue. For the airframe i used AKAN 73059 out of the bottle and AKAN 73010 for the radome and other dark grey areas. Really nice paints. For other areas i used other vallejo colors, tamiya etc.

 

Hi Berkut,

 

Thanks for the great response.  I have one question for yourself, that being are you familiar with the AK Real Colors line and if so do you think that their color matches to Soviet Aircraft Colors is spot on or does it need tweaking?  I am really not a BIG Fan of the AKAN color line personally as it is something difficult to aquire.

 

Thanks Again

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Looks great!

 

I really should have to speed up my own project. I don't know why I've had several fit problems with mine, so I can't fully agree with its excellence. A nice kit it is and very beautiful in box, not to mention when finished. 

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23 hours ago, juanchopancho said:

Very nice, she's a pretty MiG-31!  The cockpit looks very detailed. That's OOB only?

 

What did you use to thin the AKAN paints?

Thank you. Yes, other than the self made seatbelts (out of tamiya tape) the cockpit is completely OOB. I use just distilled water to think AKAN.🙂

Here is a picture of the cockpit during building;

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23 hours ago, Rocketdrvr said:

 

Hi Berkut,

 

Thanks for the great response.  I have one question for yourself, that being are you familiar with the AK Real Colors line and if so do you think that their color matches to Soviet Aircraft Colors is spot on or does it need tweaking?  I am really not a BIG Fan of the AKAN color line personally as it is something difficult to aquire.

 

Thanks Again

I am not familiar with AK Real colors at all. My color matching tips is just the usual; Don't necessarily trust that the producer made a good color match and compare color by color against pictures of the real thing. If it matches, great, if not look for other colors that are closer either from the same or a different maker. In my experience, 95% of the time there are colors out there that match the desired color close enough out of the bottle and mixing is only needed in the last 5%.

 

4 hours ago, janman said:

Looks great!

 

I really should have to speed up my own project. I don't know why I've had several fit problems with mine, so I can't fully agree with its excellence. A nice kit it is and very beautiful in box, not to mention when finished. 

Looking forward to seeing your completed too Jan! I have honestly had very little trouble fit wise with mine. There were a few tabs i found myself trimming in the intake system for a better fit and basically the only place i had to use putty were a few sink marks (one along the intake bend and on the inside of the vertical tails). That being said what i have found is that the fit is quite tight, meaning that even just a layer of the primer and paint might create some fit trouble in some parts. However, if one just trims primer/paint away in those sections things pretty much click in place and solves 99% of the issues.

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On 8/22/2020 at 8:14 PM, Berkut said:

I was lucky enough to sit in this particular frame during 100 years of Russian Airforce celebration in 2012.

 

I didn't see you there.....

 

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.... and I'm jealous as hell.......

 

Great model BTW :thumbsup:

 

Ken

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  • 1 month later...

VERY nice MIG-31BM!  I have one waiting in its box, and I can only hope mine ends up even halfway as good!  I really like the clean build and the very minimal weathering.  So often, many of these Russian jets look like they've been beaten and are barely airworthy.  Now, the real ones, in some cases, may look like that, but there had to be ones newly out of the manufacturer where they look pretty close to new, which this one looks like, at least to me.  Well done!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/2/2020 at 10:36 AM, Flankerman said:

 

I didn't see you there.....

 

.... and I'm jealous as hell.......

 

Great model BTW :thumbsup:

 

Ken

Didn't see you either but would absolutely say hello if i did!

 

On 9/5/2020 at 6:48 AM, Ichitoe said:

Fantastic build! Great job on it. 

 

Thank you. 🙂

On 9/7/2020 at 11:07 AM, pollie said:

Impressive  beast! I wish AMK would downscale it....

 

😉 😉 😉

 

On 10/10/2020 at 1:15 AM, Curt B said:

VERY nice MIG-31BM!  I have one waiting in its box, and I can only hope mine ends up even halfway as good!  I really like the clean build and the very minimal weathering.  So often, many of these Russian jets look like they've been beaten and are barely airworthy.  Now, the real ones, in some cases, may look like that, but there had to be ones newly out of the manufacturer where they look pretty close to new, which this one looks like, at least to me.  Well done!

 

Thank you! Judging by your excellent D-9 i am sure it will end up excellent too. 🙂 Yeah, i am a big fan of accurate weathering and it is a hard balance between accurate and a boring model. I think my panellines tend to be a touch too dark but other than that i try to keep other weathering to minimum and only in spots that are logical and/or documented in pictures.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 11/5/2020 at 4:55 AM, ChesshireCat said:

how I missed this; I don't know! Fantastic build! I have the upgraded kit and another I forgot I even bought. Two different versions. The stencils looked very nice. Were they from AMK?

gary

Thank you! Glad you liked it. 🙂 Yup, decals are 100% OOB, had no trouble with them whatsoever. Forgot to add stencils on the insides of the pylons but that is on the to-do list for the mentioned upgrades/improvements i would like to do to the model.

 

10 hours ago, Quiddy said:

Turned out great! It took you long enough but it was worth it. Congrats on the win also. 

Thank you Quiddy, yours is excellent as always too!

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10 hours ago, Berkut said:

Thank you! Glad you liked it. 🙂 Yup, decals are 100% OOB, had no trouble with them whatsoever. Forgot to add stencils on the insides of the pylons but that is on the to-do list for the mentioned upgrades/improvements i would like to do to the model.

 

Thank you Quiddy, yours is excellent as always too!

Those kits are sorta frightening when you first look kin the box (best packaging I've ever seen by the way), but go together very well.  I was sorta wanting them to go into the Mig25 family, but ICM beat them to the punch. I was also taken by just how big that airframe is!

gary

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